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AT   LOS  ANGELES 


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ETTATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

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William   Ewaht  Gladstone. 


e 


Companion  Classics. 


Arthur  Henry  Hall  am, 


BY 


William  Ewart  Gladstone. 


Reprint  prom  The  Youth's  Companion, 
January  6.  i8g8. 


Boston . 
Perry  Mason  &  Company. 


I 


o 


Z.1 


■V  '1  0  5 

H  H   .  4- 


/^NE  of  the  literary  events  of  the  nineteenth 
century  was  the  publication  of  Tennyson's 
"In  Memoriani."  Critics,  however,  conceding 
its  nobility  as  a  poem,  have  questioned  whether 
the  poet  did  not  hold  an  almost  mythical 
estimate  of  its  hero,  Arthur  Henry  Hallam. 

It  was  eminently  fitting,  therefore,  that  "the 
greatest  living  Englishman"  should  revive  his 
memories  of  the  days  when  he  and  Hallam 
were  boys  together.  To  Mr.  Gladstone's  tender 
and  convincing  tribute  nothing  need  be  added. 
It  will  survive,  a  landmark  of  literature,  side 
by  side  with  the  masterpiece  which  it  justifies 
and  adorns. 


Arthur  Henry  Hallam. 


AR  back  iu  the  distance  of  my  early  life, 
and  upon  a  surface  not  yet  ruffled  by 
contention,  there  lies  the  memory  of  a 
friendship  surpassing  every  other  that 
I  \,-^  has  ever  been  enjoyed  by  one  greatly 
blessed  both  iu  the  number  and  in 
the  excellence  of  his  friends. 

It  is  the  simple  truth  that  Arthur  Henry 
Hallam  was  a  spirit  so  exceptional  that  every- 
thing with  which  he  was  brought  into  relation 
during  his  shortened  passage  through  this  world 
came  to  be,  through  this  contact,  glorified  by  a 
touch  of  the  ideal.  Among  his  contemporaries 
at  Eton,  that  queen  of  visible  homes  for  the  ideal 
schoolboy,  he  stood  supreme  among  all  his 
fellows ;  and  the  long  life  through  which  I  have 
since  wound  my  way,  and  which  has  brought  me 
into  contact  with  so  many  men  of  rich  endow- 
ments, leaves  him  where  he  then  stood,  as 
to  natural  gifts,  so  far  as  my  estimation  is 
concerned. 

But  I  ought  perhaps  to  note  a  distinction  which 
it  is  necessary  to  draw.  Whether  he  possessed 
the  greatest  genius  I  have  ever  known  is  a 
question  which  does  not  lie  upon  my  path,  and 
which  I  do  not  undertake  to  determine.  It  is  of 
the  man  that  I  speak,  and  genius  does  not 
of  itself  make  the  man.  When  we  deal  with 
men,  genius  and  character  must  be  jointly  taken 
into  view ;  and  the  relation  between  the  two, 
together  with  the  effect  upon  the  aggregate,  is 


8  Arthur  Hcury  Hallain. 

iufiuitely  varialjlc.  The  toweriug  position  of 
Shakespeare  among  poets  does  not  of  itself 
afford  a  certain  indication  that  he  holds  a  place 
equally  high  among  men. 

Father  and  Son. 

Arthur  Ilallam  undoubtedly  enjoyed  very  great 
advantages.  The  fame  of  his  father  as  an 
historian  still  endures,  and  it  is  probably  not  too 
much  to  say  of  him  as  an  author  that  he  belongs 
to  the  permanent  staff  of  British  literature. 
His  mother,  too,  ^vas  well  suited  by  her  remark- 
able gifts,  however  their  display  might  be 
repressed  by  feminine  modesty,  to  be  the  mother 
of  so  distinguished  a  son.  But  the  time  of  course 
came  when  nature  would  assign  to  Mr.  Hallam 
the  larger  share  in  the  training  of  his  sou's 
mind.  From  the  intimacy  with  Arthur,  which  it 
was  my  happiness  to  enjoy  at  Eton,  I  had  good 
opportunities  of  observing  the  affectionate  and 
sleepless  vigilance  with  which  he  prosecuted  his 
delightful  task. 

The  closest  correspondence  seemed  to  be 
maintained  between  them  by  an  unforced  and 
spontaneous  practice  ;  and  whatever  the  fascina- 
tions of  a  literary  career,  than  which  none  in 
London  was  more  distinguished,  the  father's  eye 
was  incessantly  on  the  work  of  his  son.  For  him 
he  also  secured  the  advantage  of  residence  as  a 
pupil  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Hawtrey,  by  far  the 
best  among  the  Eton  tutors  of  that  day,  and 
afterward  conspicuous  for  his  excellence  as 
head-master  of  the  school,  and  as  provost  of  the 
college.  He  did  not,  however,  hand  over  his  son 
to  Mr.  Hawtrey,  but  constantly  and  congenially 
supervised  his  studies. 


Arthur  Henry  Hallam.  9 

Mr.  Hallam  read  with  liis  sou  and  guided  his 
reading.  When  Arthur  had  entered  into  the 
debating  society  of  the  school,  there,  too,  his 
father  followed  him.  Its  subjects  of  discussion 
were  usually  historical,  and  politics  found  only 
an  indirect  admission,  for  we  were  excluded  hy 
a  rule  of  needless  jealousy  and  rigidity  from 
touching  any  matter  which  had  occurred  within 
the  last  preceding  fifty  years.  We  were  thus  a 
good  deal  stinted  in  our  choice  of  subjects,  and 
occasionally  obliged  to  seek  out  unusual  paths. 
Once  we  had  in  our  penury  discussed  whether 
mathematics  or  metaphj'sics  were  most  beneficial 
as  a  discipline  of  the  mind.  Arthur  had,  without 
doubt,  sent  to  his  father  a  notice  of  the  discussion 
on  this  subject,  which  was  exceptional,  and  yet 
for  us  interesting.  I  remember  the  summary 
reply  of  the  historian:  "Your  debate  between 
mat.  and  met.  is  truly  ridiculous." 

An  Unequal  Friendship. 

While  intimacy  was  at  this  particular  time  the 
most  delightful  note  of  the  friendship  between 
Arthur  Hallam  and  myself,  I  am  bound  to  say 
that  it  had  one  other  and  more  peculiar  charac- 
teristic, which  was  its  inequality.  Indeed,  it  was 
so  unequal,  as  between  his  mental  powers  and 
mine,  that  I  have  questioned  myself  strictly 
whether  I  was  warranted  in  supposing  it  to  have 
been  knit  with  such  closeness  as  I  have  fondly 
supposed.  Of  this,  however,  I  find  several 
decisive  marks.  One  was,  that  we  used  to  corre- 
spond together  during  vacations,  a  practice  not 
known  to  me  by  any  other  example.  Eton 
friendships  were  fresh  and  free,  but  they  found 
ample  food  for  the  whole  year  during  the  eight, 


lO  Arthur  Henry  HaUatn. 

or  eight  and  a  half,  months  of  term  time. 
Another  proof  significant  from  its  peculiarity  I 
find  in  a  record  more  than  once  supplied  by  a 
very  arid  journal,  which  at  that  early  period 
I  had  begun  to  keep.  It  bears  witness  that  I 
sometimes  "  sculled  Hallam  up  to  the  Shallows," 
a  point  about  two  miles  up  the  stream  of  the 
Thames  from  Eton.  Working  small  boats 
(whether  skiff,  "  funny," — such  was  the  name, — 
or  wherry)  single-handed  was  a  common  practice 
among  Eton  boys,  and  one  which  I  followed 
rather  assiduously  ;  but  to  carry  a  passenger 
up-stream  was  another  matter,  and  stands  as 
I  think  for  a  proof  of  setting  extraordinary 
value  upon  his  societj'. 

"Messing"  Together. 

Another  recollection  more  considerable  bears 
in  the  same  direction.  Except  upon  special 
occasions,  the  practice  was  that  the  boys  break- 
fasted, or  "  messed,"  alone,  each  in  his  room. 
Now  and  then  a  case  might  be  found  in  which 
two,  or  even  three,  would  club  together  their 
rolls  and  butter  (the  simple  fare  of  those  days, 
which  knew  nothing  of  habitual  meat-breakfast), 
but  this  only  when  they  lived  under  the  same 
roof.  I  had  not  the  advantage  of  living  in 
Mr.  Hawtrey's  house,  and  indeed  it  was  severed 
from  that  of  my  "dame"  by  nearly  the  whole 
length  of  Eton,  as  it  stood  in  what  was  termed 
Weston's  yard,  near  those  glorious  and  unri- 
valled "playing-fields"  (I  speak  of  a  date 
seventy  years  back.  The  stately  elms  were  then 
in  their  full  glory.  I  fear  that  the  hand  of  time 
has  not  wholly  spared  them),  whereas  my 
window  looked  out  upon  the  churchyard,  with 


Arthur  Henry  Hallam.  1 1 

the  mass  of  school  buildings  interposed  between 
our  dwellings.  Notwithstanding  this  impediment 
we  used,  for  I  forget  how  many  terms,  regularly 
to  mess  together,  and  the  point  of  honor  or 
convenience  was  not  allowed  to  interfere,  for  the 
scene  of  operations  shifted,  week  about,  from  his 
room  to  mine,  and  vice  versa.  It  was  a  grief  to 
me,  in  my  posthumous  visits  to  Eton,  to  be 
unable  to  identify  his  room,  consecrated  by  the 
fondest  memories,  for  it  had  been  sacrificed  to 
the  necessary  improvements  of  an  ill-planned 
but  most  hospitable  residence. 

Habits  of  Exercise. 

It  was  probably  well  for  him  that  he  partici- 
pated in  no  game  or  strong  bodily  exercise,*  as  I 
imagine  it  might  have  precipitated  the  effects  of 
that  hidden  organic  malformation  which  put  an 
end  to  his  life  in  1833,  when  he  was  but  twenty- 
two  years  old.  But  at  these  meals,  and  in  walks^ 
often  to  the  monument  of  Gray,  so  appropriately 
placed  near  the  "  Churchyard  "  of  the  immortal 
"Elegy,"  were  mainly  carried  on  our  conver- 
sations. It  is  evident,  from  notices  still 
remaining,  that  they  partook  pretty  largely  of 
an  argumentative  character.  On  Sunday,  May  14, 
1826,  I  find  this  record  in  my  journal:  "Stiff 
arguments  with  Hallam,  as  usual  on  Sundays, 
about  articles,  creeds,  etc."  It  is  difficult  for  me 
now  to  conceive  how  during  these  years  he 
bore  with  me  ;  since  not  only  was  I  inferior  to 
him  in  knowledge  and  dialectic  ability,  but  my 
mind  was  "cabined,  cribbed,    confined,"  by  an 

*He  performed,  however,  with  his  friend  Rogers,  the 
exploit  of  jumping  off  Windsor  Bridge  into  the  River 
Thames.     (Letters  of  Lord  Blachford,  p.  3.) 


12  Arthur  Henry  Hallam. 

intolerance  which  I  ascribe  to  my  having  been 
brought  up  in  what  were  then  termed  Evangelical 
ideas  —  ideas,  I  must  add,  that  in  other  respects 
were  frequently  productive  of  ;^reat  and  vital 
good. 

Hallam's  Breadth  of  Mind. 

This  he  must  have  found  sorely  vexing  to 
his  large  and  expansive  tone  of  mind,  but  his 
charity  covered  the  multitude  of  my  sins.  The 
explanation  is  to  be  found  in  that  genuine 
breadth  of  his,  which  was  so  comprehensive 
that  he  could  tolerate  even  the  intolerant. 
It  was  a  smaller  feat  than  this  to  tolerate 
inferiority.  But  certainly  this  was  one  of  the 
points  in  which  he  had  anticipated  what  is 
usually  the  fruit  of  mature  age.  As  life  advances, 
and  we  become  less  vigorously  productive,  so 
also,  by  way  of  partial  compensation,  even  the 
ordinary  mind  may  become  more  thrifty  in  its 
dealings  with  men,  and  we  strive,  and  learn  as 
well  as  strive,  to  draw  forth  from  every  one 
all  that  he  is  capable  of  yielding.  Again  there 
was  a  saying,  attributed  in  my  day  to  Whately, 
about  the  way  in  which  he  could  associate 
with  comrades  inferior  to  himself,  and  make  use 
of  their  minds  as  anvils  on  which  to  beat  out  the 
thoughts  engendered  in  his  own.  I  incline  to 
think  that,  with  his  moral  kindliness,  Arthur 
Hallam  made  himself  a  master  in  this  branch  of 
art.  For  on  looking  back  to  some  of  his  youthful 
letters,  I  find  that  he  contrived  to  draw  profit 
from  the  commerce  also  of  other  inferior  minds, 
nay,  of  some  which  were  perhaps  inferior  even 
to  my  own.  I  interject  these  last  words,  that 
they  may  help  to  relieve  me  from  the  suspicion 
of  an  affected  humility,   which  I   freely  admit 


Arthur  Henry  Ha  Ham.  13 

that  the  strain  of  my  present  remarks   ma}-  be 
calculated  to  suggest. 

In  a  small  volume  of  verse,  printed  in  1830  (of 
which  I  still  possess  a  copy  presented  to  me  by 
the  author),  there  is  a  poem  standing  as  No.  i  of 
"Meditation  Fragments"  and  addressed  to 
"My  bosom  friend."  Herein  are  contained  lines 
which  seem  to  imply  something  like  a  brother- 
hood, if  not  a  parity,  of  genius.  No  name  is 
given,  but  internal  evidence  admits  of  an 
identification  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt. 
In  this  poem  we  find  the  following  lines, 
referring  to  the  effect  of  a  lengthened  absence  : 

Like  a  bright,  singular  dream, 
Is  parted  from  tae  that  stroug  seuse  of  love. 
Which  as  one  indivisible  glory  lay 
On  both  our  souls,  and  dwelt  in  us,  so  far 
As  we  did  dwell  in  it. 

Here  is  conveyed  a  conception  of  personal 
communion,  which  appears  to  be  drawn  from 
the  very  innermost  penetralia  of  our  nature.  The 
person  to  whom  the  verses  are  addressed  was  one 
possessed  of  intellectual  powers  above  the  vulgar 
strain,  j-et  by  no  means  remarkable  ;  but  he  was 
endowed  with  a  capacity  of  tenacious,  loyal  and 
warm-hearted  friendship  such  as  is  rarely  met 
with ;  and  it  is  an  interesting  fact  of  human 
psychology  that  there  could  be  so  genuine  and 
close  a  gluing  together  of  two  young  hearts 
where  the  mental  powers  laj'  severed  from  the 
very  first  by  a  distance  really  immeasurable. 
Perhaps  it  exhibits  an  interesting  form  of 
parasitic  life.  Clearlj'  it  seems  to  bring  into 
view,  by  an  example  of  Arthur  Hallam,  that,  as 
sleep  and  food  are  supposed  within  certain  limits 
occasionally  to  replace  one  another,  so  an  unusual 


14  Arthur  Unity  JIallam. 

wealth  in  sympathies  uiay  be  made  to  abate 
certain  tlemands  of  the  intellect  for  mental 
correspondence,  which  would  otherwise  be 
inexorable. 

School  Life  and  Friends. 

Arthur  Ilallam's  time  at  Eton  lasted  from  the 
summer  holidays  of  1822  to  the  same  period  in 
1827.  Next  to  him,  in  the  Hawtrey  house,  lived 
Gerald  Wellesley,  his  senior  by  two  or  three 
years,  but  bound  to  him  by  the  gift  of  a  fine 
scholarship,  as  well  as  by  the  high  qualities  of 
heart  and  head,  which  in  mature  and  in  advanced 
life,  qualified  him  for  so  many  years  as  the 
sagacious  personal  adviser  of  Queen  Victoria 
with  regard  to  the  ecclesiastical  appointments 
recommended  to  her  by  her  successive  prime 
ministers.  Wellesley  could,  I  have  uo  doubt, 
have  supplied  valuable  records  of  Arthur  Hallam, 
but  in  the  ordinary  course  he  left  Eton  not  very 
long  after  my  own  intimacy  began,  though  not 
before  the  days  of  the  "mess  "  in  common. 

Noted  Contemporaries. 

There  were  other  contemporaries  of  Hallam, 
such  in  their  calibre sls  to  mark  the  period.  One 
of  them  was  George  Selwyn,  afterward  bishop  of 
New  Zealand  and  then  of  Lichfield,  a  man 
whose  character  is  summed  up,  from  alpha  to 
omega,  in  the  single  word  "noble,"  and  whose 
high  office,  in  a  large  measure,  it  was  to 
reintroduce  among  the  Anglican  clergy  the  pure 
heroic  type.  Another  was  Francis  Doyle,  whose 
genial  character  supplied  a  most  pleasant 
introduction  for  his  unquestionable  poetic  genius. 
This  great  gift  was  in  him  so  undeniable  that,  had 


Arthur  Henry  Hallatn.  15 

lie  possessed  along  witli  it  the  self-couceutrating 
faculty  and  commanding  will  of  Tennyson,  he 
could  not  have  failed  to  take  a  far  higher  place 
among  the  poets  of  the  age.  Internal  evidence 
enables  me  to  say  that  he  was  certainly  the 
author  of  the  second  of  the  two  remarkable 
estimates  of  Arthur  Hal  lam  which  were  printed 
after  his  death  by  his  father.*  This  list  of 
notables  might  be  enlarged,  but  it  is  time  that  I 
should  pass  on. 

Debating  at  Eton. 

The  common  bond  among  all  the  boys  of  any 
considerable  promise  at  Eton  was  the  association 
for  debating  all  unforbidden  subjects,  which  has 
already  been  named  and  which  was  known  as 
"The  Society."  Such  institutions  are  now  very 
widely  spread  ;  but  at  the  date  when  this  one 
was  founded,  in  the  year  181 1,  it  might  claim  the 
honors  of  a  discovery,  for  it  was  in  exclusive 
possession  of  the  field.  During  its  career  of 
above  fourscore  years  it  has  supplied  the  British 
Empire  with  no  less  than  four  prime  ministers. 
It  fluctuated  in  efficiency  as  the  touch  of  time 
and  change  passed  over  it ;  but  during  the  period 
of  Arthur  Hallam's  membership  it  was  regen- 
erated by  the  introduction  of  that  rare  and  most 
often  precious  character,  an  enthusiast,  by  name 
James  Milnes  Gaskell. 

This  youth  had  a  political  faculty,  which 
probably  suffered  in  the  end  from  an  absorbing 
and  exclusive  predominance  in  mind  and  life 
such  as  to  check  his  general  development  of 
mental    character,  yet   which   in   its  precocious 

♦Remains  of  Arthur  Henry  Hallani  (privately  printed), 
Preface,  p.  26. 


i6  Arthur    Henrv  Hallam. 

ripeness  secured  for  him  not  the  notice  ouly,  but 
what  might  also  be  called  the  close  friendship 
of  Mr.  Canning,  that  commanding  luminary  of 
the  twenties,  doomed  to  die  at  Chiswick  in  1827 
in  the  very  chamber  in  which  Mr.  Fox  had 
breathed  his  last  only  twenty-one  years  before. 


A  Debating  Club  Revived. 

Gaskell  found  our  Society,  if  not  at  the  point, 
yet  afflicted  with  a  premonitory  lethargy,  almost 
of  death;  but  he  breathed  life  by  his  assiduity 
and  energy  into  every  artery  and  vein  of  the 
body ;  and  gave  to  Arthur  Hallam  a  worthy  field 
for  the  training  of  his  eloquence  and  the 
exhibition  of  his  always  temperate  but  yet  vivid 
and  enlightened  ideas,  stamped  with  traditional 
Whiggism,  yet  incapable  of  being  permanently 
trammelled  by  any  artificial  restraint. 

I  have  mentioned  that  we  were  inhibited  from 
debating  any  events  not  more  than  fifty  years 
old,  and  I  recollect  the  growling  of  our  famous 
Doctor  Keats  when  we  fished  out  from  the  Indian 
administration  of  Warren  Hastings  a  question 
lying  very  close  upon  the  line.  But  Gaskell  was 
equal  to  the  occasion.  He  had  a  small  but 
pleasant  apartment  in  a  private  house,  which  his 
private  tutor  was  privileged  to  occupy.  In  this 
room  four  or  five  of  us  would  meet  and  debate 
without  restraint  the  questions  of  modern 
politics.  Here  we  revelled  in  the  controversies 
between  Pitt  and  Fox.  I  think  we  were  mostly, 
if  not  all,  friendly  to  Roman  Catholic  Emanci- 
pation, and  to  those  initial  measures  of  free  trade 
which  Huskisson,  supported  by  Mr.  Canning, 
devised  with  skill,  and  supported  with  courage, 
in  the  face  of  a  bitterness  of   hatred  from  the 


I 


V 

_} 

From   tm£    Bust    Hf   €"••-■''. 

Arthur  Henry  Hallam. 


Arthur   Henry  Hallam.  17 

"harassed  interests,"  which  I  think  underwent 
at  least  mitigation  in  the  later  stages  of  the 
controversy- 

His  Happy  School  Life. 

Arthur  Hallam's  life  at  Eton  was  certainly 
a  very  happy  life.  He  enjoyed  work,  he  enjoyed 
society,  and  games,  which  he  did  not  enjoy,  he 
contentedly  left  aside.  His  temper  was  as  sweet 
as  his  manners  were  winning.  His  conduct  was 
without  a  spot  or  even  a  speck.  He  was  that  rare 
and  blessed  creature,  aniina  natiiralitis  Chris- 
tiana. All  this  time  his  faculties  were  in  course 
of  rapid,  j^et  not  too  rapid,  development.  He 
read  largely,  and  though  not  superficially,  j'et 
with  an  extraordinary  speed.  He  had  no  high, 
ungenial  or  exclusive  ways,  but  heartily 
acknowledged  and  habitually  conformed  to  the 
republican  equality  long  and  happily  established 
in  the  life  of  our  English  public  schools. 

Democracy  of  the  School 

It  was  an  equalit}'  so  rigid  that,  though  we 
had  among  us  abundance  of  boys  with  titled 
appendages  in  one  form  or  another  to  their 
names,  yet  woe  be  to  any  one  of  them,  aye,  had 
he  been  a  duke,  if  he  had  sought  to  add  to  these 
distinctions  any  other  form  or  shred  of  privilege. 
We  sometimes  said  among  ourselves  that  they 
were  a  little  favored  by  Doctor  Keats,  the 
head-master  ;  but  I  think  none  of  us  seriously 
believed  it.  Happy  the  time  and  place,  had  all 
of  us  been  like  Arthur  Hallam.  Yet  he  bore 
upon  him,  even  at  this  period,  one  mark, 
significant  if  slight,  of  the  coming  doom.  On 
these  occasions  he  would  have  to  spend  in  his 


i8  Arthur    Henry  liallam. 

room,  probably  iu  the  production  of  an  exercise 
in  prose  or  verse,  those  hours  between  the 
severed  school-times  dispersed  over  the  day, 
which  were  more  ordinarily  devoted  to  recreation. 
I  have  sometimes  seen  him  at  the  conclusion  of 
one  of  these  intervals  ;  and  it  was  always  with  a 
delicate  but  deep  rosy  flush  upon  his  cheeks, 
reaching  to  the  eyes. 

Hallam  at  Cambridge. 

To  be  the  son  of  Mr.  Hallam,  the  historian, 
was  in  itself  a  great  distinction.  Few  men  have 
cultivated  the  historic  or  literary  muse  with  a 
more  inflexible  integrity,  or  held  the  judicial 
balance  with  a  firmer  hand  when  pronouncing 
upon  controverted  matters.  Yet  there  were  two 
questions,  at  least,  which  may  be  raised  upon 
the  direction  that  this  wise  and  good  man  gave  to 
the  life  of  his  son.  Himself  a  most  distinguished 
alumnus  of  Oxford,  he  sent  his  son  to  Cambridge. 
The  mathematical  studies  of  that  great  university 
were  at  the  time  founded  upon  the  geometrical 
method,  soon  after  abandoned  for  the  analytical, 
perhaps  not  without  some  loss  in  point  of 
genuine  educative  power.  This  great  study  was 
pursued  under  conditions,  long  since  abandoned, 
which  were  somewhat  tyrannic  as  toward  other 
branches  of  mental  exertion  ;  for  undergraduates 
were  not  allowed  to  compete  for  the  principal 
honors  of  classical  studies,  unless  after  reaching 
a  certain  point  upon  the  scale  of  mathematical 
distinctions,  which  was  such  as  to  certify  a 
decidedly  respectable  proficiency.  Mr.  Hallam, 
in  writing  of  his  son's  mental  powers,*  expresses 
regret  "that  he  never  paid  the  least  attention  to 

*  Preface,  p.  14. 


Arthur  Henry  Haliam.  19 

mathematical  studies,"  and  a  certainty  that  he 
had  capacity  to  master  the  principles  of 
geometrical  reasoning.  And  indeed  it  would 
be  audacious  to  assert  as  to  Arthur  Hallam  any 
incapacity  with  reference  to  anything  whatever 
that  lay  in  the  region  of  mind.  Yet  my  faith 
in  his  sincerity  and  self-knowledge  almost 
compels  me  in  this  one  particular,  which  after 
all  is  in  itself  of  narrow  compass,  to  question  at 
least  his  practical  competenc}\ 

For  in  his  letters  to  me,  Avritten  during  and 
after  the  Etonian  period,  I  find  complaints, 
which  are  really  touching,  of  the  difficulties, 
almost  the  agony,  which  he  encountered  in 
dealing,  for  instance,  with  trigonometry ;  and 
his  sincerity  was  of  that  rare  kind  which  never 
fails  to  carry  with  it  freedom  from  exaggeration. 
He  adverts  repeatedly  to  the  subject ;  but  I  will 
only  quote  from  one  letter  of  July  25,  1828,  when 
he  says:  "I  have  been  tormenting  myself  with 
Euclid  for  the  last  five  years  at  intervals,  and  get 
on  like  the  snail  of  arithmetical  celebrity,  who 
got  up  his  wall,  you  know  how." 

His  Distaste  for  Mathematics. 

I  cannot  but  suppose,  then,  that  the  mathe- 
matical impediment  was  that  which  mainly 
prevented  him  from  giving  himself  heartily  to 
the  studies  of  the  university,  and  left  him 
without  a  place  in  its  distinctions.  In  the 
Oxford  of  that  day,  on  the  other  hand,  I  can 
confidently  say  he  would  have  had  every  motive, 
and  every  inducement,  to  apply  himself  to  them 
with  a  whole-hearted  devotion.  For  in  the 
usages  of  that  period  at  Cambridge,  next  to 
mathematics  the  pure  refinements  of  scholarship 
were  far  more  in  fashion  than  the  closer  studv  of 


20  Arfhur    Ilrtity  Ilallam. 

the  great  masterpieces  of  aiiti(iuity  in  their 
sul)stance  and  spirit.  This  feature  of  the  system 
was  some  years  later  pointed  out  and  condemned 
by  two  most  distinguished  witnesses,  one  of 
them  Doctor  Whewell,  with  his  wide  attainments 
and  stock  of  comprehensive  power,  and  the 
other  Lord  Lytteltou,  who  stands  in  the  very 
first  rank  of  Cambridge  scholars  of  his  times. 

The  Classics  at  Oxford. 

The  final  classical  examination  at  Oxford,  on 
the  other  hand,  apart  from  divinity  (in  which 
honors  were  not  then  given),  may  be  considered 
as  divided  into  three  elastic  departments  of 
scholarship  and  poetry,  history,  and  philosophy. 
As  among  these, the  second  somewhat  outweighed 
the  first,  and  the  third  the  second.  In  each  case, 
the  examination  turned  upon  the  substance 
more  than  the  vehicle,  and  the  influence  of 
Butler,  which  would  have  been  so  propitious  to 
the  mind  of  Arthur  Hallam,  was  at  its  climax. 
I  regard  it  as  certain  that,  if  he  had  been  at 
Oxford,  he  would,  by  taking  the  highest  classical 
honors,  and  by  a  thoroughly  congenial  develop- 
ment of  philosophic  power,  have  illustrated  the 
annals  of  the  university. 

I  do  not  pretend  that  these  remarks  conclude 
the  whole  case.  Had  he  gone  to  Oxford,  he 
would  not,  or  would  not  at  that  period  and  in 
that  manner,  have  known  Tennyson ;  and  the 
world  might  not  have  been  in  possession  of 
"In  Memoriam,"  surely  the  noblest  monument 
(not  excepting  Lycidas)  that  ever  was  erected  by 
one  human  being  to  another. 

Nor  is  this  all.  He  was  estranged  indeed  at 
Cambridge  from  academical  pursuits.     Nothing 


Arthur   Henry  Hallam.  21 

could  be  more  gloomy  than  his  first  impressious 
of  the  "odious"  place,  in  the  early  days,  wheu 
he  came  face  to  face  with  the  facts  which  showed 
him  that  he  would  have  to  abandon  the  idea  of  a 
really  academical  career.  The  clouds  then 
gathered  thickly  round  him;  but  he  soared 
above  and  beyond  them.  His  pinion  was  so 
strong  that  there  w-as  no  elevation  which  he  was 
not  capable  of  reaching,  uo  ether  too  fine  and 
subtle  for  him  to  float  in  it. 

A  Great  Experiment. 

This  brings  me  to  my  second  essay  of  timid 
criticism.  To  interpose  eight  mouths  or  more  of 
Italy  between  Eton  and  Cambridge  was,  in  the 
case  of  any  capable  and  susceptible  youth,  a 
great  experiment.  The  agencies  of  locomotion 
have  within  the  last  seventy  years  been  not  only 
multiplied  but  transformed.  We  then  crept  into 
and  about  countries ;  we  now  fly  through  them. 
When  Arthur  Hallam  went  wdth  his  family  to 
Italy  there  was  not  so  much  as  a  guide-book. 
It  was  shortly  afterward  that  Mrs.  Starke,  under 
the  auspices  of  Murray,  founded  that  branch  of 
literature,  and  within  the  compass  of  one  very 
moderate  volume  she  undertook  to  expound  in 
every  particular  the  whole  continent  of  Europe. 

A  Visit  to  Italy. 

But  this  is  only  touching  the  outside  of  the 
case.  A  visit  to  Italy  was  then  the  summit  of 
a  young  man's  aspirations  ;  it  now  supplies  some 
half-dozen  rapid  stages  in  larger  tours,  where  w-e 
run  much  risk  of  losing  in  discipline  and  mental 
stimulus   what   we   gain   in   mileage.     When   it 


22  Arthur  Henry  Hallam. 

took  sixteen  or  eighteen  days  to  post  to  Rome, 
each  change  of  horses  was  an  event.  The  young 
traveller  could  not  but  try  to  make  the  most  of 
what  he  had  bought  so  dear.  vScene,  history  and 
language  now  flash  before  the  eye;  then,  they 
soaked  into  the  soul.  Men  were  then  steeped  in 
the  experiences  of  Italy  ;  they  are  now  sprinkled 
with  the  spray.  Its  scenery,  its  art,  its  language, 
which  it  was  a  delight  and  luxury  to  learn;  its 
splendid  literature,  its  roll  of  great  men,  among 
whom  Dante  himself  might  serve  to  build  up  the 
entire  fame  of  a  nation,  and  its  place  in  history, 
which  alone  connects  together  the  great  stages 
of  human  civilization  ;  all  these  constituted  a 
many-sided  power,  which  was  brought  to  bear 
almost  in  a  moment  on  the  mind  of  Arthur 
Hallam.  I  knew  it,  for  I  suffered  by  it.  The 
interval  between  his  progress  and  my  own, 
always  wide,  became  such  that  there  was  no 
joining  hands  across  it.  I  was  plodding  on  the 
beaten  and  dusty  path,  while  he  was 

Where  the  lost  lark  wildly  sings, 
Hard  by  the  sun.* 

He  was  himself  sensible  of  the  masterful, 
abnormal  power  which  Italy  had  exercised  upon 
him,  for  he  wrote  me  on  July  3,  1828,  in  these 
terms : 

"I  have  been,  I  believe,  somewhat  changed 
since  I  last  saw  you.  I  have  snatched  rather 
eagerly  a  draught  from  the  cup  of  life,  with  its 
strange  mingling  of  sweet  and  bitter.  All  this 
should  rather  have  come  after  my  three  years  of 
college  than  before;  but  nothing  can  cancel  it 
now,  and  I  must  on  in  the  path  that  has  been 

•  Barry  Cornwall. 


Arthur  Henry  Hallam.  23 

chalked  out  for  me.  I  have  no  aversion  to  study, 
I  trust,  quite  the  contrary ;  though  my  ideas  of 
the  essential  do  not  precisely  square  with  those 
of  the  worshipful  dons  of  Cambridge." 

I  have  not  attempted  to  reproduce  or  formally 
condense  from  the  admirable  obituar}-  essay  of 
1834,  by  his  father,  the  short  and  simple  annals 
of  the  life  of  Arthur  Hallam.  It  should  be 
allowed  to  remain  inviolate.  It  would  have 
been  yet  more  culpable  on  my  part  to  cover  the 
thinness  of  my  own  recollections  from  the  stores 
of  noble  verse  presented  by  "In  Memoriam," 
and  long  ago  enshrined  among  the  literary 
treasures  of  our  race.  I  am  aware  that  the  one 
slender  hope  I  may  presume  to  entertain  is  that 
of  casting  a  few  faint  side-lights  upon  a  character 
profoundly  beautiful.  The  strong  sentiments 
that  I  entertain  on  the  wonderful  nature  of  his 
gifts  in  the  region  of  thought,  when  combined 
with  the  qualities  of  his  character,  carry  ^\nth 
them  at  least  this  one  attestation,  that  they  have 
stood  the  wear  and  tear  of  those  years,  now 
outnumbering  threescore,  which  have  passed 
away  since  his  death. 

His  Power  and  Charm. 

It  would  be  hazardous  to  attempt  additions  to 
those  accounts  of  his  extraordinary  powers,  both 
in  construction  and  in  criticism,  and  of  his 
immeasurable  charm  and  profound  affections 
which  have  been  furnished  by  Mr.  Hallam  in 
his  memoir,  or  incorporated  there  from  the  pens 
of  friends,  who  were  themselves  men  of  genius. 
But  a  very  few  words  may  be  ventured  in 
summing  up  the  subject. 

As  a  learner,  he  bears  in  regard  to  the  most 
tangible  tests  of  excellence  the  severest  scrutin}'. 


24  Arthur  Henry  Hal/am. 

This  may  be  seen  by  his  translating,  at  fourteen, 
the  Ugolino  of  Dante  into  Greek  iambics ;  and 
again  at  a  later  time,  but  when  he  was  not  yet 
eighteen,  by  his  production  of  Italian  sonnets, 
which  Sir  Anthony  Panizzi,  a  consummate  judge, 
declared  that  he  could  not  distinguish,  so  finished 
were  the  compositions,  from  the  productions  of 
native  authors.  The  system  of  his  day  at  Eton 
did  not  apply  those  stimulants  to  emulation 
which  are  now,  perhaps  in  testitnony  of  our 
degeneracy  and  decline  from  the  standard  of 
disinterested  love,  necessarily  and  universally 
employed  in  England.  But  any  competent 
witness  would  at  once  have  declared  him  the 
best  scholar  (in  any  but  the  very  narrowest 
sense)  of  the  whole  school  with  its  five  hundred 
pupils.  I  have  glanced  at  the  causes  which 
confined  his  exertions  of  Cambridge  to  the 
production  of  such  poetry  and  prose  as  was  not 
available  for  the  high  honors  of  the  university. 
But  in  this  world  there  is  one  unfailing  test  of 
the  highest  excellence.  It  is  that  the  man  should 
be  felt  to  be  greater  than  his  works.  And  in  the 
case  of  Arthur  Hallam,  all  that  knew  him  knew 
that  the  work  was  transcended  by  the  man. 


Studying  for  the  Law. 

After  leaving  the  university,  he  betook  himself, 
at  his  father's  desire,  to  preparation  for  the 
law.  In  geometry  there  is  no  interest  attaching 
to  the  result  of  dividing  space  this  way  or  that ; 
everything  lies  in  the  process  of  attainment  and 
its  healthy,  bracing  force.  This  was  not  enough 
for  him.  It  may  be  that  from  causes  partially 
analogous  to  those  which  had  operated  upon  him 
at  the  university,  law  would  not  have  satisfied  or 


Arthur  Henry  Hallam.  25 

allayed  the  hunger  of  his  soul.  His  essential 
and  invariable  concern  was  with  human,  not 
with  abstract  interests.  If  he  loved  metaphysics, 
it  was  on  their  moral  side.  He  was  the 
indefatigable  satellite  of  Truth  and  Beaut)' ;  and 
to  this  service  he  was  sworn,  because  Truth 
and  Beauty,  Truth  the  first  and  Beauty  the 
handmaid  or  relEltaaig  of  Truth,  are  the  divinely 
appointed  sustenance  of  the  human  soul. 
Religion  (possibly  after  a  brief  period  of 
wrestling)  had,  nay,  could  have,  no  difficulties, 
or  none  below  the  surface,  for  him;  he  was 
marked  from  the  first  by  a  warm  and  reverent 
piety. 

A  Great  Light  Extinguished. 

And  this  remark  brings  me  almost  to  my 
conclusion.  When  the  appalling  intelligence  of 
his  sudden  death  at  Vienna  in  the  early  autumn 
of  1833,  during  a  holiday  tour  taken  with  his 
father,  reached  us  in  England,  I  felt  not  only 
that  a  dear  friend  had  been  lost,  but  that  a  great 
light  had  been  extinguished,  and  one  which  was 
eminently  required  by  the  coming  necessities 
of  the  country  and  the  age.  Those  who  will 
read  the  "  Theodiccsa  Novissima,''^  printed 
among  the  remains  of  Arthur  Hallam,  will  be 
able  to  surmise  the  grounds  on  which  my 
anticipation  rested.  But  I  think  that  of  all  the 
characteristics  of  his  mind,  perhaps  the  most 
peculiar  was  its  moral  maturity.  What  treasures 
he  carried  away  with  him  to  the  grave !  How 
much  he  had  to  impart !  Something,  perhaps, 
even  to  the  poet  and  friend  who  has  reared  over 
him  the  memorial  more  durable  than  bronze 
or  stone. 

It  was   one,   I    think,   well  warranted   by  the 


26  Arthur  Ihnry  llallam. 

character  of  our  woiulerful  century,  such  as  it 
has  been  developed  before  our  eyes.  It  has 
been  an  age,  at  least  in  Arthur  Ilallam's  country, 
of  characteristics  so  copious,  so  varie<l  and  so 
conflicting  that  it  is  difficult  to  sum  them  up 
under  any  one  common  and  connecting  phrase. 
But  on  the  whole  it  has  had  for  its  prevailing 
note  the  abandonment  acd  removal  of  restraints  ; 
and  very  largely,  no  doubt,  of  restraints  which 
were  injurious.  The  motto  of  the  race  has  been, 
"Unhand  me."  Emancipation  and  enfranchise- 
ment have  been  at  work  in  all  directions.  It  has 
had  vast  developments  of  energy  outward, 
sometimes  constructive,  sometimes  not  without 
consuming  processes  of  disintegration  from 
within.  We  have  been  set  free  from  unlawful 
and  (sometimes)  from  lawful,  from  arbitrary  and 
(sometimes)  from  salutary  control.  I  beg  no 
question  here.  But  as  there  is  an  undeniable 
relation  between  the  freedom  of  the  will  and  the 
partial  devastation  of  the  moral  world  arising 
from  its  abuse,  so  it  is  evident  that  the  great  and 
sudden  augmentation  of  liberty  in  a  thousand 
forms  places  under  an  aggravated  strain  the 
balance,  which  governs  humanity  both  in  thought 
and  conduct. 

A  Needed  Personality. 

And  upon  my  heightened  retrospect,  I  must 
advisedly  declare  that  I  have  never,  in  the 
actual  experience  of  life,  known  a  man  who 
seemed  to  me  to.  possess  all  the  numerous 
and  varied  qualifications  required  in  order  to 
meet  this  growing  demand,  and  even  its  fullest 
breadth,  in  anything  like  the  measure  in  which 
Arthur  Hallam  exhibited  these  budding,  nay, 
already  flowering,  gifts.     It  was  to  be  a  sensitive, 


Arthur  Henry  Hallatn.  27 

an  exacting,  a  self-asserting  age.  To  deal  with 
it,  to  find  effectual  access  to  its  confidence  and 
the  key  to  its  affections,  required  the  combination 
of  breadth  with  courage,  and  of  firmness  wth 
tenderness. 

The  Need  of  the  Age. 

The  treatment  that  it  needed  could  only  be 
supplied  by  one  who  united  an  unbounded 
wealth  in  vivid  sympathies  with  the  keenest 
intellectual  insight,  and  the  sure  tact  which 
discerns  and  separates  the  precious  from  the  vile. 
His  death  was,  then,  a  grievous  and,  humanly 
speaking,  an  irreparable  bereavement.  But  He 
who  took  him  made  him,  and  He  who  made  him 
can  replace  him. 

I  marked  him 
As  a  far  Alp  ;  and  loved  to  watch  the  sunrise 
Dawn  on  his  ample  brow.* 


Death  of  Hallam's  Brother. 

Such  is  the  vision  which  has  lost  with  the 
lapse  of  years  none  of  its  force,  its  fulness,  or 
its  freshness.  May  I  add  to  it  in  conclusion  a 
brief,  but  touching  supplement.  Mr.  Hallam's 
eldest  son  was,  we  have  seen,  removed  from  his 
sight,  at  a  moment's  notice,  during  a  holiday 
tour  in  Germany  in  the  autumn  of  1833.  But, 
besides  Arthur,  he  had  a  second  son  named 
Henry,  junior  by  about  fourteen  or  fifteen  years. 
While  he  did  not  wholly  reproduce  the  elder 
brother  in  the  qualities  which  carried  him  so 
nearly  into  the  ideal,  yet  he  stood  in  the  very 

*  De  Vere's  "  Mary  Tudor." 


2  8  Arthur  Heuty  Hallam. 

first  ranks  of  distiTictioii  as  it  was  and  is 
commonly  understood  at  Eton,  and  in  our 
ordinary  speech.  Indeed,  he  had  reached  a  point 
of  advancement  such  as  is  not  usually  attained. 
In  1840  he  was  one  of  some  twenty  or  thirty  boys, 
the  flower  of  the  school,  who  were  examined  by 
my  brother-in-law,  Lonl  Lyttelton,  and  myself 
for  the  Newcastle  scholarship,  the  highest 
distinction  which  the  school  has  to  offer.  He 
was,  I  believe,  the  very  youngest  of  the  whole 
band.  On  the  decision  of  the  contest,  he  proved 
to  be  the  second  in  merit ;  and  he  was  carried 
home  in  triumph,  on  the  announcement,  by  the 
generous  enthusiasm  of  his  schoolfellows. 

In  1850  he  had  attained  an  age  exceeding  only 
b}-  some  four  years  the  limit  of  his  brother's 
life.  During  that  autunm  I  was  travelling  post 
between  Turin  and  Genoa,  upon  my  road  to 
Naples,  on  account  of  a  young  daughter's  health. 
A  family  coach  met  us  on  the  road,  and  the 
glance  of  a  moment  at  the  inside  showed  me 
the  familiar  face  of  Mr.  Hallam.  I  immediately 
stopped  my  carriage,  descended  and  ran  after  his. 


A  Sad  Meeting. 

On  overtaking  it,  I  found  the  dark  clouds 
accumulated  on  his  brow,  and  learned,  with 
indescribable  pain,  that  he  was  on  his  way  home 
from  Florence,  where  he  had  just  lost  his  second 
and  only  remaining  sou  from  an  attack  corre- 
sponding in  its  suddenness  and  its  devastating 
rapidity  with  that  which  had  struck  down  his 
eldest  bom  seventeen  years  before.  It  was 
terrible  for  him  thus  to  have  lost  what  he  had 
loved,    but    it    was    a    rare    election    and    high 


Arthur  Henry  Hallam.  29 

privilege  to  have  reared  two  such  sons  for  this 
world  and  for  the  next. 


Tennyson's  Tribute. 

These  pages  had  been  written  before  the  recent 
issue  from  the  press  of  the  memoirs  of  Lord 
Tennyson.  That  remarkable  work  must  by  this 
time  have  convinced  the  reading  world  that  the 
great  poet  of  his  age  was  likewise  full  of  greatness 
as  a  man.  In  the  early  portion  of  the  work,  as 
might  have  been  expected,  Arthur  Hallam 
frequently  appears.  The  simplicity,  the  direct- 
ness, the  depth,  the  integrity,  so  to  speak,  of  the 
hold  which  he  took  upon  Tennyson,  patent  as  it 
is  upon  every  page  of  "In  Memoriam,"  receives 
an  altogether  fresh  and  independent  attestation 
from  these  biographical  records. 

In  Tennyson's  estimate  of  Arthur  Hallam's 
great  faculties  there  is  but  one  reserve.  He 
thinks  that  his  friend  would  have  attained  the 
highest  summits  of  excellence,  but  that  it  would 
not  have  been  done  in  the  character  of  a  great 
poet.  It  is  almost  an  act  of  arrogance  if  I 
presume  to  agree  to  this  judgment;  but  at  any 
rate,  I  maj^  say  that  I  accept  it.  Yet  not  in  the 
sense  of  affirming  that  Arthur  Hallam,  had  he 
lived,  would  have  been  less  than  a  great  poet, 
but  that  the  bent  and  bias  of  his  powers  lay  in  a 
different,  though  an  allied,  direction. 

A  Final  Estimate. 

I  pass  on  to,  and  conclude  with,  a  second 
observation.  The  evidence  supplied  by  the 
biography  as  to  the  powers  and  promise  of 
Arthur  Hallam  is  copious  and  of  great  authority  ; 


30  Arfhur  Hcfity  Ha  Ham. 

some  of  it  supplemental  to  what  is  furnished  in 
the  work  by  the  greatest  of  all  oracles,  Alfred 
Teunysou  himself.  It  all  sets  toward  one  and 
the  same  upshot.  So  far  as  I  may  presume  to 
judge,  it  convinces  me  that  the  strong  language 
I  have  been  impelled  to  use  in  describing 
Arthur  Hallam  has  not  been  too  strong.  It  is 
a  true  case  of  ostendent  icrris  hunc  tanium  fata  ; 
he  resembled  a  passing  emanation  from  some 
other  and  less  darkly  checkered  world. 


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